Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a compact, enveloped DNA-virus belonging to the Hepadnavirus family. The virus is a major cause of chronic liver disease and hepatocellular carcinoma worldwide (Hoofnagle (1990) N. Eng. J Med., 323:337-339). HBV is associated with acute and chronic hepatitis and hepatocellular carcinoma and may be a cofactor in the development of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (Dinestag et al. in Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, 13th Ed. (Isselbacher et al. eds.) McGrw-Hill, NY, N.Y. (1993) pp. 1458-1483). At least 400 million people are currently infected with HBV.
Current clinic agents, however, do not provide effective therapy or cure of HBV infections. Antiviral therapy with interferon has been used for chronic hepatitis, but has met with only partial success, and there complications from such therapy. Short term therapy with glucocorticoids may be beneficial in conjunction with interferon therapy, but long term treatment is limited by toxicological problems (Dinestag et al., supra).
It thus would be desirable to have new agents for treatment of viral infections. It would be particularly desirable to have new agents for treatment against hepatitis B viral infections.